This invention relates to a board for moving and positioning bed confined patients, and more particularly to such a board which may be utilized by a single attendant.
Hospital beds in the past have been specially configured for folding at one or more positions laterally across the bed so that the trunk of a patient confined thereto may be elevated by elevating the head end of the bed and so that support may be provided under a patient's legs by elevating a portion of the bed lying thereunder. These beds are relatively complicated and expensive, requiring lead screws and operating cranks to be mounted in appropriate positions on the bed. Moreover, movement of patients over the bed surface who are unable to assist themselves requires more than one attendant, particularly if the patients to be moved have back complications and require rigid support throughout the entire back area during movement. Movement of patients with such back problems in the past has required application of a back brace beforehand. When patients with back complications are to be transferred from the bed to a wheel chair, such a back brace is necessary. Previously the back brace was applied by two or more attendants while the patient is in a prone position, which is most inconvenient considering the back brace includes rigid structure, usually metal, which extends around the hips with two upright rigid straps on each side of the spine extending to and engaging the upper portions of the shoulders.
A device is desirable which would allow a single attendant to handle application of a back brace on a patient while the patient is in a sitting or semisitting position on the bed surface, and which would allow a single attendant to move the patient laterally or longitudinally over the bed surface as well as providing for elevation of the upper part of the patient's body while confined to a conventional type bed.